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Reading &
Writing: Exercise
4 (Summary
writing)
Home Notes English as a Second
Language – 0510/0511 Reading & Writing:
Exercise 4 (Summary writing)

Now, it gets hard!

Exercise 4 of ESL paper, is summary writing.

A passage will be given, on which you are
required to write a summary.

What is a summary? The formal definition

is: a brief statement or account of the main
points of something. And that’s exactly what
you have to do. Identify the main, relevant
points and write them in your own words in
an organized manner.

This is the part of the paper I, personally, had

the most trouble with. It is not as easy as it
looks. So, let’s get to it.

Read the question properly.

What exactly do you have to write a summary
on. In the question, they could specify one or
more detail. So you need to write the
summary on just those details. Leave out the
rest.

w17_qp22. See the emboldened part? That”s what

you have to focus on.

Read the passage.

As you go, underline the points that you need
to include in your summary, that are relevant
and important to the question.

Write the summary.

That’s easier said than done. You have got all
your points, now you need to collate and
organise it into one write-up using your own
words.
Write a one-line introduction that tells
the examiner what you’re writing a
summary on. Keep it short. In the example
above, you could start the summary by
writing : Poon Lim, a ship-wreck victim,
managed to survive an astounding 133
days on an island all alone.
Start organising the points. You could
do it chronologically, advantage-
disadvantage format or problem-solution
format- whatever works for the task at
hand. In the example above, writing points
in their chronological order seems to be
the right choice since it’s a narrative type of
article.
Use connectives, lots of them, to
organise your points and add a sense of
continuity. Some examples are:
Firstly/Secondly/Thirdly, In
Addition/Also/Furthermore,
Consequently/As a result, Thus/Hence etc.
Use your own words. Use synonyms of
word in the passage, if possible. In the
example above, the phrase ‘invented ways
to find food and water’ can be changed to
‘came up with a system to obtain food and
water’.
You don’t have to write a conclusion.
If the question asked you to write the
summary on the entire passage, then
maybe a conclusion would be fitting. But in
questions like the one above, it is irrelevant
to the question.
Stick to the word limit. For the
extended paper you have to write at least
100 word but not more than 120 words. For
the core paper you need to write at least 70
word but not more than 80 words. Don’t
write too much; scrap unnecessary points
not relevant to the question; cut short
words.

That’s all about Exercise 4! The best way to

get better at it, is to keep practicing past
paper questions, nothing more. Polishing
up your vocabulary skills might be helpful in
using your own words.

Time Management

The summary writing exercise in the core

paper 1 is too easy, so it should only take
about 5 minutes to attempt it.

Spend about 15 minutes on this exercise, in

the extended paper 2. Reading the passage
should take about 5 minutes and the rest 10
minutes should be used to write your
summary.

Notes submitted by Lintha

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30 thoughts on
“Reading & Writing:
Exercise 4
(Summary writing)”
J. Fando says:
November 19, 2021 at 5:49 am

Thank you, I m very happy to see this, now I

understand how to right the summary
í ½í± í ½í±

! Like
REPLY

Lintha says:
December 6, 2021 at 1:34 pm

Glad to help!!

! Like
REPLY

creatingwithkidsblog says:
April 7, 2021 at 2:54 am

Is it obligatory that the summary is writen in

one paragraph only? Can a student in an
advantages/disadvantages summary ,for
exampla, write two paragraphs?

! Like
REPLY

Sarah says:
May 15, 2021 at 12:45 pm

It’s definitely not obligatory, and you can

split it into 2 paragraphs if you wish,
we just recommended one paragraph as
this is the method that worked best for us
when writing those exams!

! Like
REPLY

yaseen says:
February 11, 2021 at 6:00 pm

well explained .Thank you very much, now I

understand how to write the summary
properly.

! Like
REPLY

Lintha says:
February 16, 2021 at 1:30 pm

Welcome!

! Like
REPLY

Anthi says:
October 13, 2020 at 7:02 am

I think this helped me a bit, we’ll see in the

exams today. I got how taking notes work.
But summary for me is a bit more difficult
than it seems…i hope I’ll ve okay…and by the
way this year, which was our last, we just did
once or twice exercises for notes and
summaries..but that’s it…it was something
new for us…i hope it’ll be okay…

! Like
REPLY

Lintha says:
October 19, 2020 at 6:14 am

Good luck!

! Like
REPLY

Mursil S says:
November 16, 2021 at 12:02 pm

Ay bro how was the exam? My exam is

tomorrow

! Like
REPLY

EMPURRESS says:
September 29, 2020 at 6:43 am

Is it necessary to write the title when you are

writing a summary?

! Like
REPLY

Lintha says:
October 19, 2020 at 6:12 am

No. Title, long introductions,

conclusion etc. are not
recommended. Just summarise the
main contents concisely.

! Like
REPLY

Anjan Vikrant.R says:

February 7, 2021 at 3:20 am

No need including title

! Like
REPLY

aida says:
September 18, 2020 at 12:11 pm

this is amazing i love it so much im so

passionate about it thank you to my english
teachers for introducing it to me

! Like
REPLY

Har1dy says:
August 20, 2020 at 9:48 am

Truly it was a helpful one.

! Like
REPLY

Prabhjot says:
May 10, 2020 at 3:37 am

I am an overseas student and is currently

preparing for an English equivalency Test for
an ITT programme in UK, can you suggest
me how should I prepare?

! Like
REPLY

Sarah says:
May 11, 2020 at 2:30 pm

I’m afraid none of us have any experience

with that test so we’re not qualified to
provide advice. If you are looking to
improve your general English fluency,
though, my top tips would be:
1. Read English books (this is really good for
picking up good spelling and grammar)
2. Watch English movies (this is good for
picking up slang, phrases, expressions,
learning natives talk, and working on your
listening skills)
3. Make a friend who is a native English
speaker and practise with them – this
could be an online friendship, a pen pal, or
an in person friendship

! Like
REPLY

Prabhjot says:
May 13, 2020 at 6:36 pm

Thanks a lot for replying…

! Liked by 1 person
REPLY

Ariz Akmal says:

April 26, 2020 at 1:56 pm

Very helpful for assignments during the

lockdown, thank you!

! Like
REPLY

Lintha says:
May 3, 2020 at 8:08 am

Glad we could be of help!

! Like
REPLY

Ega says:
November 9, 2019 at 10:08 pm

Its very helpful.Thank you very much.

! Like
REPLY

Armand says:
October 14, 2019 at 12:15 pm

Thank you.
Way more clear

! Like
REPLY

Igcser says:
October 14, 2019 at 11:04 am

I’m going to have my exam tmr and your

notes helps a lot TT. Wish me good luck;))

! Like
REPLY

Neeti says:
September 8, 2019 at 1:55 pm

Ohh i just love your website…..it is so helpful…

thank you so much….can you also upload
notes on writer’s effect, I struggle in that
topic a lot…

! Like
REPLY

Mansoor kalemzai says:

March 19, 2019 at 8:12 pm

it was really helpful, tomorrow is my second

term mock exam and it really helped me a
lot!!
i appreciate your hard work and time
consumed to prepare these all for us.

! Like
REPLY

Lintha says:
March 20, 2019 at 3:00 am

Thank you!! So glad we could be of

help! All the best for the mock exam!

! Like
REPLY

Ahmad says:
March 6, 2019 at 2:26 pm

Amazing notes, thank you so much.

! Like
REPLY

Lintha says:
March 12, 2019 at 2:28 pm

You’re welcome Ahmad!!

! Like
REPLY

Kartikeya beniwal says:

February 28, 2020 at 2:43 am

Thanks for help .now i can sleep

peacefully

! Liked by 1 person
REPLY

Gulbahar shaikh says:

February 10, 2019 at 11:08 am

It’s too helpful thanks

! Like
REPLY

Lintha says:
February 10, 2019 at 1:13 pm

You’re welcome!

! Like
REPLY

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